Last week, Emma had the stomach flu. She finally ate a small meal on Sunday and returned to school Monday. Monday afternoon I ended up in bed with the electric blanket turned on high, even though I did all that laundry to try to avoid getting sick. It's been a rough week --kind of reminds me of being pregnant, actually. Sick to my stomach 24/7 and not enough energy to walk across a room.
Yesterday evening the college Board voted to impose their latest contract terms on us. I couldn't tell whether the sick feeling in my stomach was from the virus, or from the stress.
I know this is going to be a messy few weeks. I don't know, right now, if we'll actually vote to strike. There are 162 faculty members at this college, but only about 60 of them have been vocal enough to get a feel for where they stand. It's possible that the number of faculty who just want this to go away might be higher than the number who feel we're being mistreated.
Last night I dreamed that we'd passed over this episode --in my dream
it wasn't clear how the contract had eventually turned out. Instead, I
just remember feeling so relieved that at least the stress of the
situation was now in the past. Unfortunately, I woke up.
I feel a sudden urge to learn how to meditate. Just in time, Emma made this zen garden. We need to find a little rake, to replace this doll house shovel, but then we'll be all set.
That does sound like a very stressful time. It's enough to make it through a child's illness without having labor and employment issues hanging over your head. I hope the situation improves.
ReplyDeleteThe zen garden looks beautiful!
Love the zen garden. You have a very clever daughter. I'm sorry it's so stressful right now. I hope the situation gets better very soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're finally feeling better. Stomach bugs are so awful.
ReplyDeleteWhat about using a pretty fork as your Zen rake?
You poor thing. I'm glad you have Emma feeling better and have a zen garden to soothe that worry.
ReplyDeleteLabour disputes suck. I was out on strike once, in February, in Sudbury (northern Ontario), when I was working for the provincial government. It was not fun. Cold, and stressful, and in the end, I don't think we gained enough in concessions to make up for the monetary hit we took for being without wages for two months. The irony was that our local was the only local in the union that voted to accept the contract, so the union sent striking correctional workers to make sure that we were doing the picket line properly. I hope that you won't have to go through a strike, and that you are feeling better soon.
ReplyDeleteYou were on strike for two months?! Wow, that is a long time! So far the college strikes in Illinois over the last year have lasted about a week. It is very scary, because both my husband and I teach at the college, so we'll lose our entire income for the strike period.
DeleteI was on a field trip once where we visited Sudbury to look at the shatter cones.
I hope that if you go on strike, it won't be for more than a week. I got $100/week strike pay for walking the picket line. It took us a while to get better financially.
DeleteI edited a report on shatter cones! It's hard to believe that there are still scientists who ascribe a volcanic genesis to the Sudbury Structure -- even explaining the shater cones. Did you go down any of the mines? I once went down the one that has the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory at the bottom, before the observatory was built. I was working for the Ontario Geological Survey when I lived in Sudbury. Now I'm working for the federal survey in Ottawa.
We didn't go down in a mine on that trip --in fact, my strongest memories of Sudbury were how all the rocks were brown. I have some memory of being told that it was from coal-burning plants in the area? It was such a weird landscape.
DeleteNope, the rock colour and lack of vegetation was due to acid rain -- fallout from the smelting of the nickel ore mined in the area which is high in sulphur, creating sulphuric acid. Things are different now, a lot of the smelting has moved, and new processes are more environmentally friendly. Regreening efforts have paid off, and it's much prettier now.
ReplyDeleteThat does sound like a lot of stress. :(
ReplyDeleteI hope you all are feeling better tonight!
ReplyDelete~Karen at http://spokalulu.wordpress.com